by Ryk Brown
Eli Scott turned his head and looked at the officer. The officer was young with pale skin and light brown hair. His eyes were steely blue and confident. He was dressed in the same combat armor as the rest of his men, only he did not carry a supply pack on his back, nor did he carry the same energy rifle as the others.
“Yes, I’m Eli Scott,” Eli answered.
“If you will accompany me, sir?” the officer said, extending his hand to point back toward the exit.
“It’s about time,” Eli mumbled as he rose.
* * *
“Coming up on 23:30 Earth Mean Time in thirty seconds,” Ensign Souza announced.
The Celestia had been burning her main engines for nearly ten minutes.
“What’s our speed, Mister Delaveaga?” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic asked.
“Just passing one hundred fifteen kilometers per second, sir,” Luis answered.
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“Coming up on end of burn,” Ensign Souza interrupted. “In three……two……one……mark.”
Luis pressed the main engine cutoff button on his console. The low rumble of the Celestia’s main propulsion system that had been reverberating through their mostly empty hull went quiet. “Mains are off.”
“Put our underside toward Earth again,” the lieutenant commander instructed Luis. “Comms, tell engineering to take the reactors back down to idle until further notice. It’s time to go dark and cold again.”
“Aye, sir.”
“At our current speed, how long will it take us to clear the system?” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic asked Luis.
“Uh, not in our lifetime, sir,” Luis answered.
“You’re kidding.”
“Sir, at our current speed, it will take us more than two months just to reach the orbit of Jupiter. So the edge of the system? Maybe a few hundred years.”
The lieutenant commander looked disappointed. “What the hell? I thought these Explorer-class ships were supposed to be fast.”
“They are,” one of the civilian technicians said, “when they’re finished.”
“We’ve got all four engines, don’t we? How much more finished does she need to be to get up to a significant fraction of light speed?”
“All four engines are installed,” the technician explained, “but only two of them are operational, and they still need to be fully tested and calibrated. Until they are, their output is significantly less than their design maximum. If they had been burning at their true full power, the little bit of fuel we had on board only would have lasted a minute or two.”
“So we’re just supposed to cold-coast and hope the Jung don’t find us?” the lieutenant commander said.
“Sir,” Ensign Schenker at the sensor station began, “the odds of us being detected by the Jung while cold-coasting is pretty low. Even at our current range from Earth, the amount of visible light and solar radiation that our underside is reflecting is so minimal it would take a concentrated effort on a fixed point in space to detect us. In other words, they’d have to know where to look to even see us.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Yes, pretty sure, sir,” the ensign said, “and the further out we are, the more difficult we are to find.”
“What about patrols? Search parties?”
“Once we get far enough out, it would take a thousand ships to find us,” the ensign insisted.
“If the Jung had that many ships, there would be no use in fighting them,” Luis said.
The lieutenant commander sat back in the command chair for a moment, thinking. “That’s why they put us on a specific course instead of just telling us to run for it,” he realized, “so they could find us later?” The lieutenant commander scratched the side of his face. “That just doesn’t add up.”
Luis turned to face the lieutenant commander. “Sir, what is our mission, anyway?”
“All I know is that we were to wait for the data cores to arrive, then use whatever Fleet personnel we could find to take the ship out of port and head on the course I gave you. Once we got up to the assigned speed, we were to cold-coast and hide from the Jung until Fleet contacted us with further instructions.”
“Data cores?” Luis asked.
“From the Data Ark.”
“Who did the orders come from?” Luis asked.
“Admiral Galiardi himself,” the lieutenant commander said. “I almost pissed myself when he appeared on the comm screen.”
“Why the cores?” Luis wondered.
“He said there was far more technology in them. They don’t know if the Jung are more or less advanced than the technology still on those cores, and they don’t want to take the chance that they aren’t.”
“And if the Jung find us?” Ensign Schenker asked.
“We’re supposed to destroy the ship and the cores. They told me to rig the containment bottles on the antimatter reactors to fail. They said that would do it.”
“How long are we supposed to wait out here?” Ensign Souza wondered.
“As long as it takes,” the lieutenant commander said. “Hopefully not too long. Once they repel the invasion, they’ll probably send someone after us.”
“I’m assuming they gave us food and water,” Luis said.
“Yeah, enough to last months, maybe years. Loaded them myself, remember?”
An alert tone on the communications console announced an incoming message. Ensign Souza turned back around. “Incoming message, sir. It’s from Fleet.” The ensign suddenly froze as if in a state of shock. “Oh, my God.” He turned back around. “Fleet just surrendered.”
“What?” Luis said.
“What exactly did they say?” Ensign Schenker asked.
Lieutenant Commander Kovacic nodded at the ensign on the communications console.
“‘All units, Buckeye. Lay down all arms and stand down. This is a surrender. Repeat, Buckeye. Lay down all arms and stand down. This is a surrender.’”
“What the hell is ‘Buckeye’?” Luis asked.
“I’m pretty sure it’s a code word,” Ensign Souza said, “maybe to authenticate the surrender order.”
“Have you ever heard of it, sir?” Luis asked the lieutenant commander.
“No, never.”
“I wonder what it means,” Luis said.
The lieutenant commander slumped back in his command chair and sighed. “It means we’re going to be out here a lot longer than we thought.”
CHAPTER TEN
Jessica pressed the button on the presentation remote, bringing the lights in the Aurora’s command briefing room back to full intensity as the projections on the far wall faded away.
Nathan sat at his usual position at the head of the conference table, leaning back in his chair after watching Lieutenant Commander Nash’s presentation. “And the entire invasion all occurred in the course of only a few hours?” His tone implied disbelief on his part.
“Yes, sir,” Jessica said confidently.
“How can you tell?” Abby wondered.
“Fleet Command constantly broadcasts a time signal so that all ships in space can keep their clocks synchronized to Earth Mean Time,” Cameron explained. “Even at speeds below one percent the speed of light, some amount of time dilation does occur for ships on patrol.”
“Most of the comm signals we gathered were time stamped as well,” Jessica added. “It took a little calculation, but we were able to piece together the timeline to a reasonable degree of accuracy. There are still some pieces missing, but as far as how the Jung were able to successfully defeat the Earth’s defenses, we’ve pretty much figured it out.”
“I’m confused,” Nathan said. “Didn’t we see the OAP on long-range optical sensors when we first returned?”
>
“After closer analysis we determined it was not the Orbital Assembly Platform,” Lieutenant Yosef explained. “It was something that was similar in structure and size. We have yet to determine what it was.”
“The most important thing we learned is why someone sent us those coordinates,” Jessica added. “Why they wanted us to look from that particular angle.”
“Maybe they wanted to ensure that we would see that the Celestia escaped before the OAP was destroyed,” Vladimir suggested.
“Exactly,” Jessica said, pointing a finger at Vladimir. “From most of the obvious approach angles, her original escape burn would have been obscured by either the destruction of the OAP or the nuclear detonations that the Intrepid used to hide the Celestia’s escape from the nearby Jung ships in Earth’s orbit.” Jessica looked at Nathan and Cameron. “The question is: why did they want us to see it?”
“Obviously, the sender of the second message wanted us to go after her, to rescue her crew,” Cameron said as if stating the obvious.
“That’s no doubt part of it,” Nathan agreed, “but there’s more to it. The sender of the second message wanted us to rescue the ship itself, to use it to fight the Jung, to liberate the Earth.”
“A bit of a reach, isn’t it?” Cameron countered. “They didn’t even know we were still alive until we suddenly appeared in the system and hailed them.”
“Perhaps,” Nathan said. “But whoever sent that second message decided quickly enough to send us after her. Think about it; if Fleet just wanted to keep the Celestia out of the hands of the Jung, why put it on a course out into deep space? And why go to such great pains to hide her escape from the Jung? She can’t be complete yet. She was six months behind us in her build schedule when we left, and we were still two months from completion. If she had been completed, she would have been used to help defend the Earth. If they just wanted to keep it from being captured, they could’ve just blown it up, or blasted it toward the sun. There’s something else going on here. There’s something either on that ship, or in that ship, that they want to protect… that they want us to protect.”
There was a long, tense silence as everyone in the briefing room contemplated their captain’s assertions.
“There’s still one other possibility,” Jessica said, interrupting the uncomfortable silence. She waited for both Nathan and Cameron to look her way before continuing. “It could be a trap.”
Again, there was silence in the room.
“How would that even be possible?” Cameron wondered, breaking the silence. “We appear, and they suddenly hatch a plan to trap us?”
“The warning message and the message telling us where to look were two different transmissions,” Jessica explained. “The first message warned us that it was a trap, and maybe it was. But maybe the trap wasn’t for us. Maybe it was for the Celestia.”
“But the sender called us by name,” Cameron said.
“Probably because we had just announced ourselves,” Nathan reminded her, “something that, in retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have done.”
“If the trap wasn’t meant for us, then that means they knew that the Celestia had escaped.”
“It also means they don’t know where she went,” Nathan added.
“At least they didn’t at the time,” Jessica said. “It’s been more than two weeks since we reappeared over Earth. For all we know, the Jung have already found the Celestia and are setting up another trap… this time for us.”
“But you said Fleet went to great lengths to hide the Celestia’s escape from the Jung,” Nathan argued.
“We were able to see that she escaped,” Jessica said. “Why couldn’t the Jung?”
“We knew when and where to look,” Cameron said, “and from what angle.”
“What if they intercepted the same message, the second one that came just before we jumped away? Or what if they already had their suspicions about the Celestia’s demise, or someone on Earth talked? They’re smart enough to look from other angles. If so, they could have seen her escape just as easily as we did.”
“She’s right,” Cameron admitted, “and it has been nearly three weeks since we received that second message. That’s plenty of time for them to set up a trap, assuming they also knew about the Celestia’s escape.”
“At the very least,” Jessica said, “it’s safer to assume that it is a trap than it is to assume it’s not.”
The room again became silent.
“So, the Jung want us to go after the Celestia so they can try to ambush us again?” Nathan finally asked.
“To capture or destroy us,” Jessica explained. “Either outcome would be acceptable to them.”
“How would that even work?” Nathan asked. “How would they spring such a trap? Surely they must realize that we would scuttle the ship rather than let them have the jump drive.”
“Agreed,” Jessica answered. “If I were running the trap, it would be from inside the Celestia. You’d have to have a mole on the Celestia. Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near it. I’m sure the Celestia has orders to scuttle as well. And we’d spot any ships in the area long before we got close to her. So a direct ambush on us is out. They’d have to try something from inside, like a mole or a hidden boarding party… something we wouldn’t expect.”
Nathan leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table and his face in his hands. “Damn,” he mumbled as he rubbed his face. “I don’t suppose you can offer me any kind of probability factor on this.”
“Too many variables, sir. I’d be making a wild guess at best,” Jessica insisted.
Nathan sighed. “I don’t see as we have much choice, really.”
“Sir, I may not be able to offer you odds on whether or not it’s a trap, but I can tell you that the odds are in our favor when it comes to avoiding a trap. If there is a boarding party hidden on board the Celestia, we’ll be ready for them.”
“She’s right,” Cameron interrupted. “The Jung would be under the impression that we only have a crew of one hundred. They have no idea we’re fully staffed.”
“And that we have a platoon of heavily armed Corinari on board,” Jessica added with a smile.
“Even if they were dumb enough to try a direct ambush, and a bunch of Jung ships came out of FTL at once, we’d still be able to jump away in an instant,” Cameron said.
“We can detain the Celestia’s crew and interrogate them one by one,” Jessica added. “If there’s a mole on that crew, we’ll find him, sir.”
“Okay, so we take the chance,” Nathan said. “I get that. Can we find her?”
“We have her course,” Jessica explained. “It’s reasonable to assume that Fleet either wanted the Celestia to stay on a particular course, or that the chosen course would eventually take her someplace they wanted her to be. The fact that they wanted us to see her departure implies that they wanted us to see her course as well.”
“Makes sense,” Cameron agreed. “There’s still one problem, though.”
“We don’t have the propellant to go chasing after them,” Nathan said, finishing her thought for her. “We’re going to have to solve that problem first.”
“I still recommend we make contact with the resistance on Tanna,” Jessica said, “through the guy Josh and Loki met, Garrett. I think there’s a good chance he would know where the Jung might store propellant. At least it’s better than a blind search. Besides, we already have good intelligence on the Jung assets in that system, so we wouldn’t be going in completely blind.”
“Agreed,” Nathan said. “Do you still want to take Loki with you?”
“Yes, Loki should go, but not with me. I think Major Waddell should go with him.”
Nathan looked confused. “I thought you wanted to go.”
“I do, but someone n
eeds to go to Earth to make contact with the resistance there. They need to know we’re out here. We need a way to communicate, coordinate our efforts, and share intelligence. I am the most qualified person on board for this mission.”
“Who are you going to take with you?” Nathan asked.
“No one, sir. I was trained to work alone.”
“That sounds risky,” Nathan protested.
“I have to agree,” Cameron added.
“Waddell has training in covert ops, and Loki already knows the contact on Tanna. It makes sense that they go as a team. If I took someone with me, it would have to be someone from Earth, and no one on board has the right training. I’d be at greater risk if I had to babysit someone.”
Nathan sighed again. There was a lot to think about and very little time to mull things over. “All right, assume for the moment that we’re going to put you on Earth and Waddell and Loki on Tanna. How do we do it?”
Cameron pulled out the control panel on the side of the conference table and activated the holographic display system built into the table. A holographic image of the Sol sector appeared, glowing brightly as it floated above the table. “This is the Sol sector and the fifty light years around it,” she explained as she slid the control rings over the thumb and forefinger on each of her hands and stood. She reached out and began manipulating the holographic image in front of them, using her hands to rotate the image and zoom in. “This is Sol,” she explained as she zoomed in and rotated the image so they were looking down at the star and its ecliptic plane. “We’re about here,” she explained, touching the thumb and forefinger of her right hand together as she pointed at the location. An icon representing the Aurora appeared in the hologram.
“How did…?” Nathan began in amazement.
“Takaran upgrades,” Cameron answered, cutting him off with the slightest of smiles. She used her finger to draw a line from the icon representing the Aurora to Earth. “We’re already on a course to just miss Earth. We’ll have to do a small deceleration burn first, as our current speed is a bit fast for Earth orbit. Then a slight course correction will put us on a trajectory that would allow us to jump in and immediately achieve orbit. Overall propellant expenditure should be minimal.”